Prima Strategy Guide + Obsidian Guidebook

So, I bought both of these books, hardcover versions, on Amazon for a reasonable $38 shipped. This marks the first game since Final Fantasy 7 that I have purchased a strategy guide for! I'm very excited to check out both of these books and see what each has to offer.

Has anyone had a look at either of these books in hardcover form? The Prima guide is a whopping 512 pages! I'll post a review for the forum when I check them out (although, I would like to just skim them for now so I don't reveal any spoilers to my current playthrough.)

I've got the physical royal edition thing incoming, could it be part of that? If so, I should be getting it soon.

Sorry, Maylander, I have no idea about the physical goods!

If you do get a copy of either of these books, do let us know what you think of them! I'm super excited to receive them!

I'm curious what the guidebook contains. Give us a thorough breakdown after you receive it.

Originally Posted by Maylander
I've got the physical royal edition thing incoming, could it be part of that? If so, I should be getting it soon.

It is a bit confusing but as I understand it the Collectors Book is what is also known as the Guide Book. You'll get a hardcover of the Guide book if you pledged $250 or above. There are no rewards including a hardcover of the Strategy Guide. You do get an electronic version though.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I'm curious what the guidebook contains. Give us a thorough breakdown after you receive it.

Errors. Like stating Might gives Health and Endurance bonuses but not damage or healing bonuses.

It's mostly walkthrough stuff. The only mechanics related thing I learned from the strategy guide that I didn't already know is that Dexterity gives an Accuracy bonus. That makes it a must have stat on… everyone.

Originally Posted by Sacred_Path
It's mostly walkthrough stuff. The only mechanics related thing I learned from the strategy guide that I didn't already know is that Dexterity gives an Accuracy bonus. That makes it a must have stat on… everyone.

It doesn't. It did at some point in the BB then it was changed to speed increase.

Originally Posted by azarhal
It doesn't. It did at some point in the BB then it was changed to speed increase.

More errors! Thanks for the heads up. I knew they couldn't have overlooked this thing on their everlasting quest for balance.

Oh man, so this book has errors? Ugh! That bothers me on a completionist sort of level. I hope the Prima strategy guide is more accurate.

Does the guide book contain any expansion on the lore or setting of PoE or is it strictly a walkthru type book?

Originally Posted by stealth
It is a bit confusing but as I understand it the Collectors Book is what is also known as the Guide Book. You'll get a hardcover of the Guide book if you pledged $250 or above. There are no rewards including a hardcover of the Strategy Guide. You do get an electronic version though.

Yeah, that was what I posted about on the the other thread in my disappointment in the physical goods. I may buy the hardcover guidebook and strategy guide if I end up really liking the game AND they fix in the great box they sent me!

Originally Posted by Nephologist
Does the guide book contain any expansion on the lore or setting of PoE or is it strictly a walkthru type book?

The guidebook supposedly has a lot of lore and art in it, that sort of thing. If you Google it you can find a small preview of the guidebook. Here, check it out.

Click the orange "Preview" button on this page > https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/28-2…-Volume-One-HC

Originally Posted by Nephologist
Does the guide book contain any expansion on the lore or setting of PoE or is it strictly a walkthru type book?

The Guidebook is a lore book with concept arts and lots of text and feels a bit like a PnP campaign setting book. The Prima Strategy Guide is the one with the walkthrough and the one that contains errors (mostly related to balance that changed until the week prior to release).

Ugh. Oh well. Hopefully there aren't many errors. Do you know how many errors approximately the book has, azarhal? Lots or a few?

Originally Posted by Fluent
Ugh. Oh well. Hopefully there aren't many errors. Do you know how many errors approximately the book has, azarhal? Lots or a few?

Nope. I haven't looked at it, because I want to avoid spoilers. I suspect the errors match the manual errors though, for which Obsidian released an errata list (that is incomplete might I add). I don't think there are story/quest related errors in the Strategy guide though and in most cases for stats balance changes, the cyclopedia will have the correct information in-game.

There might be more stats that is going to change too, Josh didn't have the time to do all the balance changes he wanted to do pre-release. We are talking about a guy who released a rebalance-mod for his own game here (Fallout New Vegas), so I expect something similar for PoE.

Good lord, man. Patch this, rebalance that, upgrade this. When will a game ever be considered finished nowadays?

Fans should be outraged that a Prima strategy guide exists for the game and now it's full of errors. What's the point of even owning the guide now?

Originally Posted by Fluent
Fans should be outraged that a Prima strategy guide exists for the game and now it's full of errors. What's the point of even owning the guide now?

For the walkthrough, which is not full of error, that make most of the its 512 pages.

and games are never finished…never.

It's a double-edged sword, man. Yes, it's nice to have rebalances and stuff, but not at the expense of a strategy guide! It's bewildering to me. I guess that's just modern gaming for you. For those of us who played at release, the game may not even resemble itself after the first patch. Yuck.

Might be off-putting for people who paid extra for a strategy guide (don't know if there were such tiers). I just got it as part of my CE so I'm like meh, nice but I could have found this info on the net sooner or later.

I'm sure a lot of people will just play this game no matter what until they run into a severe technical issue and just marvel at the pretty ever increasing numbers.

I was interested in a physical copy of the Guidebook (or: Collectors Book if I remember the campaigns wording correctly), since it is always nice to read up on a world's lore while looking at pretty pictures. I didn't pledge for it, since the tier + added shipping to Europe was far to costly for me. Imagine my surprise recently, when the book became avaiable for pre-order from Amazon.de for a very cheap price (EUR 14.36) with no added shipping costs! Might be interesting to know for other forum-members as well, though the price has gone up a bit (EUR 19.65).

I hope it's good… it is supposed to be delivered today.